IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONS; BULLDOGS BLANK BROWN 3-0

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The eight seniors on the Yale roster have enjoyed tremendous success in their four years in New Haven. They have made two appearances in the NCAA Tournament and have won nearly 50 games. The one thing that had been missing from their resumes was an Ivy League title. That all changed Saturday night. Mimi Macauley, Crysti Howser and Emma Whitfield each scored as Yale clinched the Ivy crown with a dominating 3-0 victory over Brown before an enthusistic crowd of 1,448 at the Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium.

"This feels great," said captain Eleni Benson. "We knew if we played our game, we could win, and that's exactly what we did. It's special to do it on Senior Night in front of a great crowd."

It's the first Ivy title for the Bulldogs since the 1992 team shared the crown with Brown and the first outright crown in the history of the program, which began in 1977. Yale receives an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, which begins next weekend.

"This means everything," Yale head coach Rudy Meredith said. "It's been our goal since day one to take the Ivy League title. We've been to the NCAA Tournament a couple of times but never won the Ivy title. Now we have."

Macauley opened the scoring at 12:04 when she took a long feed from Howser and beat Brown goalkeeper Hilary Wilson. Howser made it 2-0 late in the first half. Hayley Zevenbergen sent a pass to Karnes, who flicked it to the corner of the goal where Howser was able to knock it in. Whitfield capped the scoring early in the second half when she settled a Maggie Westfal pass and fired a shot past Wilson from right in front.

Chloe Beizer played all 90 minutes in goal and made two saves to post the shutout, Yale's eighth of the season.

The Bulldogs (13-3-1, 5-1-1 Ivy) outshot Brown 11-3.

Wilson finished with four saves for the Bears (5-10-2, 1-4-2).

Yale's 13 wins equals the school record, set three times before (1996, 1998 and 2004).